[colbydog]

Well, I am in the final days of my kitchen "re-mod" In quotes, because it was just a few steps from a complete new addition. Because of the money we saved by doing ourselves (in most areas, especially cabinets), we were able to splurge on granite countertops. The counter tops and door/window casings and mop boards are all that is left. I only wish I had found this site about 1 month into the process, rather than 1 month before it is finished! Another regret, don't try to use your kitchen while doing construction. This probably added about a month to the project. Here are some of my findings:


The good.

1. Low cost - I totally and completely gutted my kitchen. This kitchen was a a 70's addition to a 40's home. 40's home is well built. 70's addition (not by me) not so well built. We started this project with just a deck re-do. I found rotten wood under the existing sliding door, which led to some demolition, which led to us re-doing the kitchen sooner than anticipated. Items involved in gutting;

a. one complete wall, 1/3 of subfloor, 3 feet of two side walls.
b. new kitchen window
c. new Anderson slider and French door
d. all new electrical (including upgrading main panel)
e. all new plumbing (including cutting house over to PEX, with hot/cold manifolds). I recommend PEX when doing extensive re-modeling. A big time and cost savings.
f. remove all sheetrock walls and ceilings and replace
g. new paint, trim ,etc
h. all new appliances
i. new heating system
j. new ikea cabinets, granite countertops

We estimated easily this would have cost us $50K plus (not including new 350 sqft Trex deck) to do all this work. I've done it all myself with some incidental professional help (mudding and taping for one) for about $25K. Had we gone with some of the other brands of cabinets, we would have had to make choices. We were getting estimates for cabinets from 10K to 12K WITHOUT countertops. Insanity - for boxes that hang on the wall. Now, some of that stuff is nice, and yes SOME is made of real wood. But who cares. Again, boxes hanging on walls. We went with Fagerlund door/drawer fronts which is really the only place you need to have/see wood. We really could not swallow the amount of money some places were asking for these boxes.

2. Convenience - we luckily live a mere 20 minutes from Ikea. Only Home Depot is closer. This made trips to pick up miscellaneous items (especially when timed during off-peak periods, a snap). AND 99% of the items I needed were in stock or arrived within a few days.

3. Functionality - there were just so many options, and choices. Almost overwhelming. The pullouts, drawers, rationell fittings all make for a very functional kitchen.

The bad.

1. Ikea staff - We decided to figure out our layout, and just put up the empty boxes we knew we'd need. I would do it exactly the same if I did it again. Except you are at the mercy of the Ikea worker you get on any given day. They are not really geared towards this. Some staff can't handle breaking it down like this. Within a few hours, I had most of the parts, pieces, components figured out. This site gave me much valued information (though I found the site late in the game). I'm no dummy, I know what I'm doing, and not too brag, but it did not take me too long before I surpassed the knowledge of most, but not all, Ikea kitchen staff. Some I found downright rude. For instance I showed up one day, go right up to the kiosk (store was virtually empty) and say "I'd like to order some doors." I was answered with a curt "well, sir, we need to know what size and style" Hello! let me finish, I had all that information. Next time I went back with just part numbers, you know I need "1 of these, 2 of these, 3 of these" That did not go over well with some of the staff who inisted they needed more information. Now, some staff was absolutely knowledgeable. My point is, this stuff, for the knowledgeable customer, should be available ad-hoc from some type of system that I could get to.

2. Directions - nothing they have is very complicated. You do one of anything you don't need the directions. But the directions, as they are, well, suck. Heck, put some print in Swedish, give me a Swedish primer. Anything is better than that cartoon guy scratching his head and trying to eat the telephone.

3. Returns - inevitably you have one two many of item X. Plan ahead if waiting in the return line. In fact, go up to Kitchens by the stuff you need today, pay for it, go down get a number for returns. While waiting for your order you will probably get called for returns.

4. ALWAYS ALWAYS count and verify your items. I did not do this once. I ate the cost of a $40 drawer. Why? I signed for it. They were not going to budge on this. But, this never happened to me again. Of the 6-8 trips I made, on two other orders they also missed an item/gave me the wrong item. I caught them on that one. They do make mistakes.

I'll try to post some pictures

Tom

[dafogle]

Hi Tom: And welcome to IKEAFANS. Sounds like you've had a major renovation underway... please do post some photos ... we are always interested in photos....

Does your IKEA have a suggestion box (mine does) ? you have some suggestions there that might make things easier. I have a draft order form for kitchens - and ususally fill that in prior to going to the store. It makes it very easy to get what I need.

Do you have any info on your local store - that you could provide to the IKEA directory ? Kitchens phone number, expiditer phone number ?, suggested IKEANs ?, etc - see the info in the IKEAPedia.

Doreen

[DulcineaK]

Hi and welcome!

I too was curious which store you go to... I hate my local IKEA and i've been known to drive an additional 45mins to get to a different one that I prefer

Too bad about eating the drawer, did you talk to a manager? I've had great help from my managers after horrid customer service in the returns area (Mercedes SUCKS in emeryville, she's driven me to tears of frustration before... literally).

ita about knowledgeable customers. I think IKEA needs to install an ordering kiosk or something where you can "order at your own risk"... then i'd really be checking my order once it was pulled. i'd sign a waiver on the way out if i had to.

And i always try to check off my list as i load in the car, thankfully Lewis (love that kid!) has caught some boxes which were iffy or if there is something missing i've got him going, "yup, she checked off the inventory, it wasn't there". I have found that all the IKEANS can be important to the quality of my visit--positive or negative-- there are some trips i want to throttle every person i see out of their ignorance and then i get one helpful human who smiles and helps and i feel human again...

[kmcg]

Welcome Tom! What you said about the staff reminds me of a thought I've had a lot recently. The Internet has allowed me to be so well-informed about products, services, and specific info (medical, e.g.) that I often feel like I know more about whatever than the person selling the product or providing the service. Cars are probably the best example, and it seems to really startle guys who sell cars when I know so much more than they do! I usually find I know lots more than the average Ikean when it comes to kitchens. An interesting shift in our world.
Kathy

[demicent]

Thanks for the warning....I can imagine myself standing in the pickup area for hours and hours going through the boxes to make sure everything is there. Maybe I should break it down into more trips, since the Ikea is 10 minutes away.

[DulcineaK]

Yeah, I stopped in Emeryville on the way home tonight and chatted with grumpy Luis about Nexus BB and the 3 glass Rubrik (coveting the turquoise for my future garage in my future home).... they had to search catalogs and computers and still the best they could say is, "well, you can't order them right now"

[colbydog]

This is about 20 minutes away from my home in North Dighton. It is a new store, just opened last year. The next closest store is in New Haven, Ct. If I had ordered everything at once, there would have been a far greater chance at mistakes. Doing it the way I did (admittedly, I am close enough that this makes sense) did save me a lot of grief. I was able to break down the project into manageable pieces, I agree, I often know more about products then sales people do - that's partly because of the internet. That's ok. What I don't like, is not being listened to. Or, for instance, Ikea associate telling me "No such thing as a deep drawer" Hello! That's what it is called, right there on her computer screen. DP drawer, and DEEP drawer front. I think the most knowledgeable staff, unfortunately are older, who have done some remodeling on their own homes. Some of the kids have no clue. On the other hand, there was an excellent employee who actually asked if I was an installer. Something to think about should I ever need a career change!

[DulcineaK]

being a west coaster I had to google North Dighton to find that it's in Mass.

it is frustrating to know something exists and have them tell you it doesn't exist (i left that part out of my story last night, i was beat--but for close to 10 minutes i was told that Rubrik Turquoise didn't exist. ever.)

But that's another great thing about this site, we share information and we're a solid place to vent when something goes awry